(June 2006) Sai Aung Tee Kham and his wife, Nang Shwe, lived a good life in their native Burma. Though Sai Aung had grown up in a peasant village, he had gone to college and become a successful lawyer. Their two children went to good schools.
But the family belonged to the Shan ethnic minority, a group that faces intense discrimination in Burma. In an effort to promote democracy and political rights Sai Aung helped found Burma’s first Shan political party in 1988. The party immediately became a target of Burma’s ruling military junta, which suppresses all dissent and wields absolute power. Party members were harassed, beaten and jailed.
On May 15, 1997, Sai Aung was arrested en route to a meeting with pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. After being held in detention, he was released with a warning to cease his political activities. The Tee Khams knew they had to leave Burma. Carrying one suitcase, the couple and their young children
slipped across the border into Thailand. There they joined 900,000 other Burmese refugees, many living in camps or working subsistence jobs in border towns.
Because he was a political activist without papers, life in Thailand was dangerous for Sai Aung and his family. That’s when he made contact with the IRC. “The IRC helped us receive official refugee status from the U.N.,” says Sai Aung. “They helped us with food, clothing and financial assistance. They were really important to our survival.”
The family successfully applied for resettlement in the United States. After a three year wait, they arrived in New York City in 2004. An IRC case worker was waiting at the airport to take them to their new apartment in the Bronx.
“We had been told that refugees were placed in tiny dormitories, that families were separated, all sorts of things,” says their 21-year-old son, Sai Lao. “We couldn’t believe our eyes. The apartment was so big and clean, with a stove and cooking utensils. My mom liked it right away.”
The IRC enrolled the family in English classes. It helped Sai Aung land a job as a paralegal, Nwang Shwe as a trainee in a factory, and Sai Lao as an electrician’s helper. But, as Sai Aung says, “The most important reason we are here is for our children’s education.”
Because Sai Lo and his sister, Mo Nom, missed three years of schooling while in Thailand, they had a lot of catching up to do. The IRC enrolled Mo Nom in an intensive summer school course and helped her get into the Manhattan Comprehensive Day and Night School, which teaches nontraditional students, including immigrants from 40 countries.
“This is the greatest school there is,” says Mo Nam. “It’s hard work, but they treat everyone equally and they really care about you.”
Her hard work paid off. This spring, she received a four-year merit scholarship from the Posse Foundation to attend Dickinson College in Pennsylvania. Mo Nam was one of 119 recipients out of 2,200 applicants. Now her brother has received his GED diploma and is attending college at night.
Sai Aung calls his daughter’s success a “dream come true,” and thanks the IRC for all its support, from his family’s days in Thailand until now. “Our dream has come true here in New York in a short period of one and a half years. A new door has opened for her. It is many times bigger than we could have imagined. We are grateful to you all.”
